significant others: dances for family, friends & lovers

Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion (PDM) brings intimate dance performance to the stage in Significant Others: Dances for Family, Friends and Lovers. This program, presented in 2019 at the Boston Center for the Arts and at the Theater at Gibney 280, share dance and performance works that look back on dances made from lives lived, and forward toward the dances and lives ahead of us. DiMuro has woven visual and spoken narratives from works created over the last several decades. Personal histories that once were encapsulated in time now speak aloud, echoing thoughts and imagery: from 1969’s Stonewall riots, through love and loss during the height of the AIDS crisis and to the arc of relationships informed by “then” and “now” - our current era’s lens of queerness.

Excerpts from Peter’s autobiographical Light Reading, which uses the kitchen setting where letters to and from family are written as backdrop, are woven amidst current introspections on gay "then" and queer now. Each work reveals as much through the written word as what’s written invisibly between the lines –including the poignant and unexpected humor found in our daily lives. New York based dancers and dance makers Pamela Pietro and Nattie Trogdon joined as guests in a revival of Peter's Donna​ performed in the run at Gibney.

A series of solos for the company, Ancient Histories, take a look at both physical and psychological patterns informed by known and unknown ancestors.

Alexander Davis, known as one half of the Davis Sisters (with Joy Davis), and J Michael Winward, a memoirist in words and movement, join as collaborators with Peter in two distinct works during the run. “Night and Gay” (Davis/DiMuro) and “Gaylight Saving(s)” (Winward/DiMuro) are new works-in-development that look at an arc of time from Stonewall to this present moment, and the performers’ individual relationship to iconic landmarks in gaylife past and queer life present day. Michael will also perform his solo work Hail Mary, Cha Cha Cha.

Long time colleagues and friends, The Bang Group, joined the Boston performances with two of choreographer David Parker's signature works and a revival of a little-known work by James Waring, one of the precursers of Judson Dance Theater in the nineteen-sixties and, like Parker, a quintessential "downtown" New York choreographer.

Press:

Top Cover Photo: Olivia Moon Photography/@halfasianlens, courtesy of The Dance ComplexBottom Left Photo: JR Photography, courtesy of the Redfern Arts Center at Keene State CollegeBottom Center and Right Photos: Timothy Avery Photography

Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion (PDM) is under the fiscal sponsorship of The Dance Complex. Tax deductible donations can be made through The Dance Complex's website. Follow this link, and select Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion when making your donation.